Chapter 4: The Book of Shadows

"Are you sure they're talking about us?" Dalton asked, looking over at the thick book in her sister's hands.

"Yeah, we are. We've also been researching the different ways the Charmed Prophecies were written, a total different style between us and the ones that live in 'Frisco. There are also prophecies about a third and final set, but we haven't been to focused on them." Dakota explained.

A white light appeared in the middle of the room and materialized into Brian; who, as always, looked energetic but tired. "Hey girls." He smiled warmly. "Have you all found anything?" He asked, he walked to the desk where Danielle had sat herself in the large leather chair in front of all the books.

"A prophecy apparently..." Dalton answered for them.

Brian looked toward the book that Dakota was holding. "Why don't you bookmark that, I've found out a couple things from the Elders that I think you all and Angel might want to know." He told his witches.

Danielle sighed and climbed out of the chair the led her two sisters out of the office, toward Angel's all followed by Brian. The four entered the office where Spike and Angel were arguing over something stupid. "Peaches, honestly, how the bloody hell do you know—Ladies." Spike stopped in the middle of his statement when the sisters entered with their white lighter.

Dalton lowered her eyebrows as she detected vibes of distrust radiating from Spike like road-kill on a hot summer day. "Something wrong?" The blonde witch asked the vampire.

"No, just trying to prove the poof wrong." Spike replied. He stationed himself on the corner of Angel's desk as if he was waiting on everyone else to leave so they could resume their fight.

"Ah." Dalton rolled her eyes and looked at Angel, who was standing in front of the desk with his arms crossed across his chest. "Brian found out some things apparently, and 'Kota and Danielle found a prophecy." Dalton reported.

"What'd it say?" The vampire asked impatient from his fight with Spike.

"Nothing to do with Illyria, which is our main concern right now." Dakota said, anxious to see what Brian had found out. "Brian, go ahead."

"Yeah, Illyria has been in a unknown protected zone. That's a place where magic and roadmaps can't show. It's not like it doesn't exist, it's in this plane, people just seem to think these places are useless. We obviously can't tell which one she's in because we don't know where it is. The Elders also think that she's not completely evil, she more of a time-bomb." Brian began to explain.

"What do you mean 'time-bomb'?" Spike asked, becoming interested in what was going on around him.

"Illyria is so powerful that being trapped in such a small shell for a long period of time without anywhere to release her power could cause a lot of damage." He explained further.

"How much power and how much time do we have?" Angel asked.

"Enough to level half this city, but we aren't sure when, that's why it's so important that we find her. So we can tell, and try to solve this." The white lighter told them.

"How do we—?

Danielle became quite when Illyria herself entered the doors of Angel's office carrying big thick black book. She walked until she was in front of Dalton, "You requested this." She held the book out, and the silver Celtic Triquetra on the cover gleamed up at the witch who was staring at the book in confusion.

She looked toward Brian, "What's this thing?" She asked taking it from Illyria's hands.

Brian's sapphire eyes widened, he looked at Illyria then at the book. "It's your family's Book of Shadows..."

"What's that?" Dakota asked narrowing her eyes.

"It's the magic book handed down since the first witch in your family. I assumed your mom had it hidden somewhere...Illyria, where did you find this?" He asked, still amazed.

Dalton and the goddess shared a quick glance. "I'm not sure where I was."

"That's surprising." Brian murmured as Dalton opened the book and began to flip through the pages of demons and spells.

"Why?" Dalton looked over at him.

"No demon, goddess or anyone that's not a force of good has ever been able to touch the Book." Brian told them.

The room stood in silence until Wesley came through the doors. "I see I've missed something."

"Yeah." Dakota said. She looked toward Angel, "I'll fill him in and tell him about the prophecy." Angel nodded in agreement. The pair walked off to Wesley's office to discuss the situation.

"I'll see if I can figure out why Illyria was able to touch the book." Brian offered.

"Maybe she's not as evil as you all think." Danielle spoke up.


Wesley and Dakota entered his still office where the Charmed Ones previous mess remained, "Sorry, Danielle and I were so busy digging for stuff we didn't get the chance to clean up." The oldest sister apologized.

"'S quite alright." Wesley said, despite what he might have been thinking. He walked over to his desk and began to sort through books as he waited on Dakota to explain everything to him.

"Brian checked with the Elders and they don't seem to know much about Illyria, but they know she's way to powerful to be here in a human body. And, if we don't do anything about it soon, she's got enough power that she can't use to level half of Los Angeles."

"Good to know." Wesley said. "I suppose we should try to find something to reduce her power." He suggested.

"Yeah, but I don't think they make 'power reducer rays,' even if they did, where would you find something like that?" The witch asked curiously, and didn't really expect an answer.

"I may have an idea..." Wesley stopped organizing books and thought for a moment.

"Wes, I was kidding." Dakota informed him.

"I'm aware of that Dakota, but I may actually know of a place that can have one of those made."

"Where?"

"We're standing in it."


Angel, Spike, and Danielle remained in Angel's office. Dalton had gotten sick of listening to everyone fight and left, Dakota had come to get Illyria to perform tests, and Brian had gone off momentarily to help another charge. Angel sat behind his desk eyeing some paperwork he was trying to avoid filling out, Spike was still on the corner of Angel's desk, not saying anything. Danielle sat in a chair in front of the desk; it was dead quiet in the office except for Danielle's breathing... Which seemed to be pretty loud, since she was the only one in the room doing it.

"Are you two waiting on me to leave?" She asked breaking the silence.

"No."

"Yes." Came simultaneously from Angel and Spike.

"Go ahead, pretend like I'm not here." She said waving one of her hands around a bit, then sat it back down on the armrest.

"Why are you here?" Spike asked harshly.

"Spike." Angel growled.

"No, seriously peaches I want to know." The bleach blonde vampire asked.

"I want to know why you don't trust us." Danielle replied. Spike looked a little amazed, it was like she just knew. "I gathered that from when my sisters, me, and Brian came in to share what we found out about Illyria." She said, erasing the vampire's confusion.

"I trust you." Spike replied, uncrossing his arms and standing up.

"Then you don't trust Dakota and Dalton?"

"No, I trust Dakota."

"Why don't you trust Dalton?"

"And this time give me a better reason than the way she smells." Angel growled from behind the desk.

"You've been smelling my sister?" Danielle didn't know whether to be disgusted or creeped out, or both.

"Well, there are certain things you just get from people." Spike defended; after all he'd just been trying to see if they really could be trusted.

"Sure..." Danielle rolled her eyes.

"She seems dodgy." Spike blurted out with the second reason he could think of.

Danielle snorted in frustration, "That's not a reason!" She said, almost yelling.

"Is so." Spike said, sounding rather like a little kid.

Danielle glared at him evilly and threw up her hands in anger, as she did this, some of the papers on Angel's desk caught fire. The witch jumped back at her own power, that she didn't know she had. "I'm sorry." She blushed as Spike grabbed the fire extinguisher from the wall.

"Did you know you could do that?" Angel asked.

"No." Danielle shook her head in amazement.


The blonde Slayer pulled the clip out of her hair and let her curls bounce free for a moment before gathering them back up and clipping all her hair up. She adjusted her one shoulder, midriff baring three-quarter length red top, to let the red strap of the shoulder-less side show. Her brown leather heels clicked on the pavement, not exactly Slayer-wear, but it would work. She pulled the stake out of her belt loop that she had placed there while she adjusted her hair and clothing. She began to twirl it around on her fingers, it had been a long night, and it was almost sunrise.

Dalton heard some noises in a close alley and decided to check it out. The Slayer quietly turned the corner to see a gang of 10 badly dressed vamps with a person in the middle. At the moment the Slayer could tell who the person was, but it didn't matter, no human could take down 10 hungry vampires at once. The Slayer quickly worked up a plan in her head and loudly walked toward the vampires circled around their target. She purposely clicked her heels on the pavement and whistled as if she didn't see the vampires.

A few of the vamps turned around and glared at what they thought would be another snack, the Slayer's eyes darted from the person in the middle of the circle to the vampire right in front of her face. She smiled like an innocent kid, "Hi there! Can I help you with something?" The vampire sighed an unneeded sigh and the Slayer made an interesting face, "Tic-Tac? Orbit? Eclipse?" The Slayer said, driving the vampire nuts. As the vampire continued to stare down the blonde in front of him, Dalton took the stake from her left hand and plunged it into the vampire's heart.

She walked through were the vampire had been standing. She gave a look that plainly said, 'next' and with that two more vampires attacked the awaiting Slayer. The other vampires started a seven on one fight with the other part of their 'meal', Dalton noticed that he might be needing help soon, so she quickly dusted one of the vamps and tossed the other into a dumpster to slow him down a little. By the time she reached the person, they were being pinned down by one of the vamps. Dalton staked one to get to the other on top of the victim, then picked that one off the person and tossed him aside.

The witch extended her hand to the person on the ground, "Gunn, didn't your momma teach you not to walk down dark alleyways at night?" She said sarcastically as she helped him up.

"Yeah well, I never listened as a kid." He laughed standing up.

She kept a serious expression for a moment, then smiled, "Nah, me neither." The eight remaining vampires began to circle up around the lawyer and the Slayer. She glanced at Gunn who still looked a little nervous at how much they were outnumbered. She flashed her attention back to the eight hungry vampires circling them. She began to work out a plan on her head and got about halfway done when she decided to just go for it.

The blonde witch used her powers to throw one of the vampires into three more, knocking them down. She and Gunn attacked the standing four.

After a rough 20 minute fight, all the vampires were dust. "Did you plan that to work that way?" Gunn asked, breathing heavy from the fight.

"Well, not exactly, but hey we're alive and they are dust." Dalton smiled.

"True... So, not that I mind because you just saved my life, but why were you out walking around this early in the morning?"

"You try the longest conversation of your life picking apart every single thing that has happened in the past couple of weeks. Let me tell you, it gets old quick." Dalton told him.

"Yeah, they do have a tendency to pick stuff apart, but that's how we figure everything out." Gunn replied.

"As much as they've picked then we should have this by now." Dalton laughed.

Gunn smirked, "Yeah, you'd think so."

"Okay, I'm walkin you back to Wolfram & Hart so you don't get yourself killed."

"I think I can handle myself, but if you wanna come, come on."

"Haha, like you handled yourself a while ago." Dalton smiled widely. Gunn rolled his eyes and started walking. The blonde quickly caught up with him and put her arm around his waist, he did the same to her and the two began the walk back to the law firm.


A/N: FINALLY! Another new chapter. I'm trying really hard to get the next one planned and written, so it should be up soon. Please Review! XOXO Charlize